When you’re training sometimes it is clear to see how beneficial having someone else there to train with can be! At least it is for me, if I’m on my own in the gym, I will push myself as far as I feel I can physically go, and then some. The same applies to when the gloves are on, if you’re not on the verge of your limits you’re not working hard enough. However, sometimes it is so beneficial to have a mate or training partner with you, for numerous reasons! To begin with, if you’re in the gym and you’ve got someone spotting you than you mentally feel more comfortable and driven to push your limits and hit those new personal bests, because the fear of being stuck with a weight on you that you can’t lift is gone! It’s a similar case in the boxing gym with the gloves on. There’s only so much you can do on your own, sure you can use the bag or some weights but if you’ve got someone there to do some pad work with than you can get in some of that crucial technique practice that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do alone! In addition to this, it works both ways they’re not just there to help you, you’re also there to help and push them! With someone there to shout at you and say you’re not a quitter you will have the drive to push further and break those boundaries! Check out how beneficial having a pad work or sparing partner can be be with this quick video right here!

For anyone who’s not heard the outcome of the David Haye and Tony Bellew fight, two things. First, how an earth have you gone this long avoiding the outcome and second, where have you been? It was set to be one of the biggest fights of the year, falling short of the most talked about only to the Joshua vs Klitschko and Khan vs Pacquiao fights. The two opponents were Tony Bellew, recent cruiser weight champion and David Haye, multiple heavyweight world champion. Most bookies had the fight solved as they thought, with the odds everywhere stacked completely in Haye’s favour. To add to this, it was set to be the fight that would either keep Haye’s career going, or end it with a crushing defeat which only added to the already unbearable tension.

The first few rounds didn’t appear to be anything else than what people had guessed, Haye was warming himself Bellew was already appearing to take some hard hits, in between the constant hugging which many thought was too excessive for a heavyweight fight. However it all kicked off in the early rounds when it appeared that Haye had severely injured his ankle after it was clear he was struggling to throw right hands and put weight on the foot. This was later confirmed to be that he had sustained a ruptured Achilles tendon. If you ask me it’s remarkable that Haye managed to put make it to the 11th round, yet alone fight in general. The fight didn’t end with a knockout which is what most were hoping for, instead Haye’s corner realised he was only injuring himself more by carrying on fighting and wisely threw in the towel in the interest of Haye’s future career. It was obvious that as soon as Haye sustained the injury it was extremely unlikely he’d pull through to win, the injury resulted in him not being able to move much and greatly increased the amount of punches he threw that merely made contact with air. By no means am I disrespecting Haye’s performance, instead I think he earned a great deal of respect, even from those who don’t support him, although there was one point in the fight where Haye showed poor sportsmanship, and karma occurred instantly.

To conclude, it was clear to see after the 4th round that there was only going to be one real winner and it was always going to be Bellew from that point on. Credit where credits due. A cruiser weight stepped up to the mark and squared on a heavyweight world champion, took his best hits, on the night, to the chin, and was the one who came out laughing.

When it comes to training, obviously practice makes perfect. You won’t become a champ overnight. When it comes to training you may not necessarily always have someone there with you to do pad work or to guide you. Because of this the bag is your best friend. He’s an inanimate object, you can’t hurt him, you can’t tire him and you can’t break his will. because of this the bag is one of your best training partners! I love the bag because you can’t get personal, you can unleash all your aggression and it isn’t going to hold a grudge against you where as you can’t unleash a relentless barrage against a light sparring partner. In addition to this, you can practice near enough any punch on a bad and due to there being so many different types you can master any technique. As well as the punch bag you can also put in some work on a speed bag. For those who do not know what this is it’s the small tear drop shaped bag that hangs from the side of a wall and you rapidly punch it in circular motions to help increase your hand speed.

To better show how to use a speed bag here is a clip of World champion ex-boxer Floyd Mayweather Demonstrating how to use one to increase hand speed:

Unless you’ve become Muhammad Ali over night or your opponent is abysmal, there will be times when you’re sparring or fighting that will require you to take a defensive stance as oppose to an attacking one. The basics are common sense, if you don’t want to take a heavy blow to the face you have to keep your hands up by your face to take the brunt of an impact. However, there’s more to it than this, you have to be able to bob and weave your opponent, to do this you need a good core as you will have to engage your whole body to move and avoid a blow. If your opponent is going for a body shot and it’s inevitable that it’s going to make contact than the best thing to do is to tuck your arms in tight to the body and twist your upper body so that your arm takes the blow instead of your stomach, which can in many cases be more serious than a hit to the face. In addition to this, if your opponent is lunging for a hit than you can put your glove out to contact it and divert the blow, resulting in the hit either missing or having the power removed from it. As seen in the picture above showing one of Ali’s many famous fights, he isn’t holding his hands up but this can be excused because of his speed and reaction times, if you have the speed to lean back or duck under a blow without being hit than you don’t need your hands up although for anyone other than pro’s I wouldn’t personally recommend it. With bobbing and weaving the key is to keep moving and bouncing around to dodge punches, and wait until your opponent leaves his or herself undefended momentarily and weave a hit to make contact.

To show how to successfully avoid punches, watch this clip of Muhammad Ali dodging 21 punches in 10 seconds showing textbook expertise in the art of avoiding punches: